Ingredients:
1 bunch radish greens, chopped*
1 spring onion, whites and greens chopped
1 lb ground chicken
1/2 cup sambal oelek
1 1/2 tablespoons (jarred) ginger garlic paste**
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
to serve: one head Bibb lettuce
Directions:
Heat a small amount of oil in a large skillet. Saute the onions and green until the onions are soft. Add the chicken and saute, breaking up any large bits until very nearly fully cooked. Add the remaining ingredients and simmer, stirring occasionally until the chicken is fully cooked and most of the liquid has evaporated. Serve with lettuce leaves, for wrapping.
*other fresh, tender-ish greens would work well too–chard, dandelion, beet
**or the equivalent amount of fresh minced ginger and garlic mashed together
My thoughts:
I ended up with a truly obscene amount of lettuce of all kinds in my produce delivery. Normally they allow for substitutions but since things are strained due to the pandemic they don’t allow them right now. Which is fine! I totally understand and am happy for produce delivery at all (if this had to happen, at least it happened in the spring when something is growing) but nothing else “salady” is really in season and we don’t really eat a lot of salad or lettuce anyway.
So I was trolling for suggestions and someone suggested lettuce wraps. Perfect! Normally they are not my bag but I had some ground chicken, some pantry sauces and spring onions from the delivery. I added the radish leaves to add a little extra value to the dish and they ended up being really good! They were attached to radishes but last week I got radishes with greens attached and the greens wilted overnight and the radishes got soft quickly so I thought it was better to divest them of their greens the same day of delivery and use them right up. They are sort of peppery so they added some flavor too.
It was super flavorful dish and one I would totally make again. I think the meat would be great tossed with ramen-type noodles or served over rice too.
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